IN CANADA.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 82, 18 March 1911, Page 4 (Supplement)

IN CANADA.

LtXURIGuB TRAVELIN THE GREAT NORTH-WEST.

(Bv Denis Crane in "Lloyd’s Weekly News.”)

4 young Englishman, returning with the iiMinl stock of wrong I, , n P, re T SIO from a brief visit to Montreal, hstened with obvious impatience to an entnuK.rurtic fellow-passenger who was remarking on the miraculous growth of the Canadian railways—how the Can-:.-l-an Pacific, ftr instance, had laid diwn 7.000 *»«U’ of track . the '?* twenty five year< and Northern was extending at the rate or a mile a dav. , Turning his beck on the speaker, the yonng fellow leaned scornfully over the Sl ” a \VhLf s the good of it all?” he whi«rored in mv ear. “Country can t be developing at that rate. Some financial 'tn Canada, one hopes. Witt » "mon;- intelligent peopk rn this country where railway construction has nw*srarilv keen so much slower, in realising the need Jo' ra^ «tfan nF transport facnitw®. <n , JltJ 1 ficultv vrill, perhaps. he femened if the "’liiTt rear'* ncarl^'jO*.ooo hommiead- - t<t" ll«! 208,70!—but responsible heads in extent’ their own property ind that of their heirs for ever. . Now 160 acres is, of .£ ,ur *\ x P f st , a . quarter of a square Tnde. and if aW those 10,060 “home-teada, «« they are called, were eontinguous in a belt twenty miles wide, and » eomtrneted to serve them. TT,n ™ l ’? down the centre of the behr that no homestead should lie more t inn ten miles from the line (which is th? ixtreme d'stwc? for the pr.’ctica. working of n farm), how long-wonk, that railwav lire need to be. Five hundred miles." M'hiih p’sinly means that t? keep pace with the rate of settl?nent. even if all the breads we re racked together as st-ted. one tiiouLnd miles of new track would have to be construct’d yeirlv. But the homesteads arc not packed together thus. When tlie Western lands wore surveyed they were■clnuiea into townships, comprising thirtv-six square miles, or “eectons of which, specking generally, only sixteen are available for free sett ement. If. therefor* the 40,0?0 hoire-tcads were as close together rs the Government plans el’ow, a railway through the heart of them would need to be more than a thorsand miles long: that is tli® pre*ent rate of settlen ent woulrt swallow up ever a thoi and mil-*' ol track everv vear. . . Tim ahows “what's the good ot it all” with an emphasis. As a matter ot fact, the claimant cry of the Mmtern farmer in regard to railways w -More, end more qnieklv ’: and all the great lines are doing their best to meet the the great Canadian Pacific, winch was tKa first to link up coaftt with coast. Its short history simply palpitates with romance. I wish I had *ra<e to tell it. A fascinating volume might be written on every division from Haltfax to Vancouver.

SUMPTUOUS TRAVEL,

With its allied systems, it has—one should any bad, for every mrnith sees mi appreciaSeaddition—a ' total ““kj* age of neartv 14.C00. Its fblue with equipment It eetunated at fifty-seven million pouads, though the value of a railway strikes the ordinary person as a somewhat, difficult ‘proposition to "figure out.’! the company owns m#ny millions of hered-of first-rate agricultural land, has nearly 400 miles of irrigation cangh, owns 70 steamship*. 1.500 teeomotives. 1,796 passenger and over -50,600 fsaMit cars, and. with it* marine emmbeuons, boast* altogether some afi.OOfHi*Ses of transport system. The pioneer railway of Canada >* the Grand Trunk, or th*. “Transcontinental.'' as>it is fondly called./ In two years’ time.this wonderful line also will link ocean to ocean. Its debouchure on the Pacific coast will be at Prince Roper*, WB * f<mr hundred am! fifty miles porth of Vancouver, thus cpriiing up new territory in Canada's largest, and eomo say her finest, province

During the lost six months the company h;-x earned nearly five million passengers, lit »n average fare or four shillings and threepence, and nearly fire million toes of freight and live’ stock; and las added to its stock ten passenger engines, a diner, six firstclass passenger and ten baggage cars. All which rfiows that, like its great competitor, it is putting forth every effort to maintain a high standard of efficiency and to meet the demands of a growing country. The third o r the Dominion’s great railways with transcontinental ideals is the Canadian Northern. At present is does not extend more than a few miles west of Edmonton, though, as its name implies it has many important northern branches, notably one to the Pas. the starting point of the new Hudson Bay line, and another under construction at Athnbaska Landing, the gateway to !the famous Peace River country: besides which, it is the sole means of access to Prince Albert, and the prospermia district of which that flourishing city is tbe centre. Within four years, however, its latest project, the construction of a lin-» from its present Western terminal to tbe Pacific coast, is exnected to becojpe an accomplished fact. Esen now its suggested destination on the aea-board. Port Mann, is being boomed by the dealers in real estate. WitJi its new trans-oceanic Steamship Bsrvi<,» from Bristol to Montreal and Quebec, already an assured sncctss. this line is proving itself a worthy ministrant to national' needs.

Transcontinental trains are of the very latest p-»tt?rn that skill and ex-peri’-nc? can' dov : se. and are equipned with sumptUbus sleepers, diners, buffet, ■ibrarv, writing accommodation, obser-v-rt-’nn c.t. with revolving e»sv chairs, and an opefi observation platform at the rear- whilst on the Canadian Pacific Railway travellers are kept informed by tTeernph on current events, a summary of tire world’s news bein" bulletined dxiiv in the sleeoing cars and It-'* or the "brealf.t«t tables on the rer.onnel Emp~e»s boats.